Sapphire (26 page)

But it wasn’t Clayton who came through the door a few minutes later. A shot of pure lust ignited in her, blowing away any idea of her being frigid as Jay knocked on the office door. He muttered ‘Hi,’ and went on with very little enthusiasm, ‘Dad’s got flu, so I’m going to drive.’ He shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, looking moody and heartbreakingly gorgeous.

But his lack of enthusiasm was like an icy bucket of water over her happiness at seeing him. ‘I really appreciate your offer Jay, but you should have cancelled, I’m sure I could have got someone else,’ Sapphire replied, put out by Jay’s tone.

‘My family always honour their commitments,’ Jay muttered. ‘Besides, you wouldn’t have been able to get someone at such short notice. Do you know where we’re going?’

‘Yes, I’ve got the details. Shall we go?’ Her businesslike, matter-of-fact tone disguised how shaken up she was by seeing him.

For the first thirty minutes of the three-hour journey he was monosyllabic, resisting all her attempts to make conversation. Yes, he was fine, yes, training for the marathon was going well, yes, work was okay, yes, his family were okay. God! This was going to be the longest car journey ever! It was such a contrast to how they used to chat so freely and Jay was so relentlessly offhand, that finally Sapphire exclaimed, ‘Jay, can’t we at least be civilised? It’s
going to seem like a really long journey if we can’t even be nice to each other.’

He shrugged, ‘I’m cool.’ A pause and then he added, ‘Actually, ‘I’m surprised to see you out and about, I thought you’d still be holed up in some flash hotel with Gavin Wright. Still, he’s a major trade up from that wanker, isn’t he?’

Sapphire took a sharp intake of breath. Maybe the silent treatment was best if this was what she was going to be on the receiving end of this sort of talk. ‘Not that it’s any of your business what I was up to, but nothing happened between Gavin and me.’

‘What? So they Photoshopped those pictures of you snogging his face off in the taxi? You should sue,’ Jay retorted, in a voice laced with sarcasm.

‘No, I did kiss him, but that’s all. The truth is there was no chemistry between us and he’s still getting over a divorce. It was really embarrassing, if you must know, I’d rather not talk about it.’

She got her wish as another hour and a half of silence followed. Sapphire stared out of the window at the motorway, Radio One pumped out of the stereo. Then Jay, ‘Sorry.’

He had spoken so quietly that Sapphire wasn’t sure if he’d actually said it. She turned to look at him. ‘Sorry,’ he repeated, ‘I didn’t mean to give you such a hard time. You’re right, it’s none of my business who you get involved with.’ The passion had gone out of his voice but somehow the politeness was worse than him being angry; at least when he was angry it seemed as though he had some feelings for her still.

They had an hour to kill in Birmingham before picking up the girls. They ended up in Caffè Nero eating panini, and drinking lattes, neither speaking to the other. Jay read the paper and texted and Sapphire pretended to be riveted by
Marie
Claire
. Her heart ached
for what they had once had – the warmth, the banter, the easy conversation. She remembered how Jay could always calm her down if she was feeling stressed. For the hundredth time she thought about what a fool she had been to push him away.

At least the hens were a distraction on the journey back, singing along to the soundtracks of
Dirty
Dancing
and
Mamma
Mia
and flirting outrageously with Jay. They were so excited about their weekend away and so grateful to Sapphire for picking them up. ‘It’s brilliant that you’ve done this,’ Lisa exclaimed. ‘There’s just no way we could have afforded the weekend otherwise.’

Sapphire smiled, at least someone seemed to appreciate her.

Sapphire pulled out all the stops to give the party a good time – word of mouth about a business, she knew, was worth a thousand ads. And she was relieved to see that the girls didn’t stint on the weekend. The hens spent over two hundred pounds in the boutique on presents for the bride to be and had extra beauty treatments. By Sunday afternoon though she was exhausted after the full-on weekend and all she wanted to do was collapse on the sofa at home in her PJs. But there was the drive back. She had assumed that Clayton would be better, yet it was Jay who turned up. At least he seemed slightly more relaxed around Sapphire and she didn’t feel quite so on edge.

The hens were partied out and mercifully didn’t sing. Sapphire wasn’t at all sure she was up to another rendition of ‘Time of My Life’. instead they chatted quietly or listened to their iPods. Meanwhile Sapphire was struggling to stay awake and kept yawning.

‘I would have been happy to drive the party back on my own,’ Jay commented as Sapphire yawned for about the tenth time in a row. ‘Thanks, but I felt I ought to come. In fact, I might need to learn how to drive a
minibus as I’ve got another party to bring down from Leicester in a couple of weeks’ time.’

‘Just get Dad or me to do it, you’ve got enough on haven’t you? Dad could do with the business as well, things aren’t great for him at the moment.’

It was practically the nicest thing Jay had said to her since they split.

By the time they had dropped the hens off and were halfway down the M6 it had started snowing. At first there were flurries of tiny flakes that spun in the headlights and it didn’t seem as if they were going to settle. ‘Wow, it hasn’t snowed in ages,’ Sapphire exclaimed, getting a childlike rush of excitement at seeing the snow. ‘Bet it won’t settle. Mum’s always going on about the snow she remembers as a child and how she went sledging.’

But Sapphire was wrong and the snow began falling more heavily, driving into the windscreen. Jay leant forward and gripped the wheel in concentration. ‘Oh my God! This is like a blizzard,’ Sapphire exclaimed again.

‘It’s not like a blizzard,’ Jay corrected her, ‘it
is
a blizzard.’

The traffic in front slowed down dramatically. They crawled along at twenty miles an hour until they reached a service station with a hotel. ‘I think we’d better sit this one out,’ Jay said turning down the slip road. Sapphire had expected that he meant have a cup of coffee and wait until conditions improved; instead Jay booked them into the hotel. Many other drivers had the same idea and there was only one double room left.

‘Are you cool with that?’ Jay asked.

‘Not a problem,’ Sapphire lied.

They trooped over to the service station area for burgers and fries and hot chocolates. The snow seemed to have relaxed something in Jay and instead of the monosyllabic exchanges, conversation was freer between
them as they chatted about Christine’s relationship with Jason, what his twin sisters were up to, and how his work was going. There was nothing more personal than that and Sapphire was frustratingly no nearer to finding out whether he had a girlfriend. At one point as she returned from getting refills of hot chocolate Jay was busy texting someone and when he received a reply he had a warm smile on his face which didn’t seem like a response to something his mum would have sent him. She could just ask if he had a girlfriend, she supposed, but she worried that she would give too much away if the answer came back as yes. And maybe she didn’t want to know.

They spent a good couple of hours in the restaurant area, but by half ten they couldn’t put off going to the hotel room any longer. Sapphire had bought shower gel and toothpaste but there hadn’t been anywhere to buy any pyjamas – she was going to have to sleep in her clothes. And by the chilly feel of the room when they let themselves in, in her coat as well. The tiny radiator was giving off hardly any heat. There was just a thin duvet and blanket on the bed. Jay touched it and frowned, ‘I was going to offer to sleep on the floor but I reckon I’ll end up with hypothermia if I do.’ He paused. ‘Would it be okay with you if slept on the bed?’

‘Course,’ Sapphire replied and then to break the awkward moment said she was going to have a shower. Or more a dribble, she found out as she stood under the tiny shower which was barely giving out any water. She had the quickest wash, got dried with a towel which was so hard it was like being exfoliated, and put her clothes back on. This was definitely not the kind of hotel where you got those lovely soft white robes. When she went back into the bedroom Jay was stretched out on the bed watching
Friends
and eating popcorn. ‘And look,’ he held out a beer, ‘I went and got us these as well, I figured we might need some alcohol to get us through tonight. I’ve
got my jacket on and I’m still freezing.’ There was a definite draught coming from the windows. Sapphire went over and pulled back the curtains. Outside had been transformed into a winter wonderland, with trees powdered with snow, their branches looking elegant and ethereal against the night, the patchy grass covered by a perfect white blanket of snow. It was like the scene from the snow globe her dad had once given her. ‘Everything looks so beautiful in the snow,’ she said, ‘Even really ugly things look better don’t they?’

‘Yeah. Even that Georgia Cox would look better covered in it.’

Sapphire steeled herself for another comment, maybe this was the moment they were going to talk about their relationship, but Jay was looking at the TV. ‘Maybe not her,’ Sapphire replied, returning to the bed. She sat so close to the edge she was in danger of falling off, but the bed had other ideas, the mattress had lost its spring and she found herself sliding towards the middle. ‘Sorry,’ she said as she brushed against Jay for the third time and then tried to inch away.

‘It’s the bed, just forget it,’ he said.

The room seemed to be getting colder. Sapphire got up and put her fake fur leopard-print coat round her, now regretting she hadn’t worn more clothes.

‘Easy, tiger,’ Jay joked, noticing the coat.

‘Oh, I’m a pussy cat really.’

For a second they held each other’s gaze. Jay was the first to look away. They carried on watching TV but the atmosphere seemed to have shifted between them again and Sapphire was sure she wasn’t imagining it – there was a definite undercurrent of attraction. As she sat on the bed, sipping beer, she was aware of Jay looking at her every now and then. Oh God, please let him still like her! At half twelve Jay suggested they turn off the TV and try and get some sleep. Sapphire made another dash to the
bathroom and when she got back Jay was already lying down in bed. It almost broke her heart seeing him there. In the past she’d have curled up next to him. She switched off the light, took off her coat and slipped out of her jeans, and then crawled under the thin duvet. She tried to stay at the far edge but the treacherous bed tipped her back into the middle. ‘Goodnight,’ she said quietly as Jay turned and faced the other way,

‘’Night,’ he replied.

But sleep eluded Sapphire. She was so aware of Jay beside her, his warm body, just inches away from her. She turned away but slid back so they were lying back to back. It was like some kind of exquisite torture. Sapphire hardly dared breathe. But it seemed to her that there must be a great big speech bubble coming out of her head, saying ‘I want you!’ that seemed so noisy to her, she was amazed Jay couldn’t hear it. She longed to slide her arms around him, feel his smooth skin and gorgeous hard muscles and that wasn’t the only hard thing she longed to feel – she was horny as hell! And bloody freezing – even next to Jay, Sapphire had to clamp her teeth together to stop them from chattering.

After twenty minutes of shivering, when Sapphire was seriously thinking of putting her coat on, Jay turned round. ‘Can’t you sleep either?’

‘I’m so cold,’ Sapphire replied. ‘Do you think I’m going to get hypothermia?’ she tried to joke as goosebumps erupted on her skin.

‘Here, does this feel better?’ Jay put his arm round her and pressed his body against hers so she got a blast of warmth from him.

‘Hmm,’ Sapphire replied as her nipples hardened at his touch. She was never going to get to sleep at this rate, but right now she didn’t care. She slightly shifted position and found herself made very aware that she wasn’t the only one who was feeling aroused. How to play this? It
was uncharted territory. Sapphire decided that direct action was needed. She wriggled her bum further into Jay and into the unmistakeable erection. For a few minutes they both lay still, but the stillness of their bodies belied the battle of lust and desire that was raging inside Sapphire and apparently Jay as well as he gently ran his hand along her thigh, slipping it beneath her top and resting it on her stomach, igniting a powerful chain reaction just below his hand. ‘Feeling warmer now,’ he murmured. As if she was about to burst into flames, Sapphire thought!

This was more than a friendly gesture, it was crossing a line, and Sapphire wanted to go further. She took his hand and moved it on to her breast where her erect nipple had way more to do with Jay than with the cold. There was an intake of breath from Jay, but he didn’t move his hand, instead he lightly stroked her nipple. Then she turned to face him and lightly kissed him. ‘I’m getting there,’ she murmured back, ‘but aren’t you supposed to have skin-to-skin contact when its really cold, and that’s the only way of staying warm?’

With that she slipped her hands under Jay’s T-shirt and ran them over his abs, then lower still as she caressed him through his Armanis. And then they were kissing and scrambling to remove each other’s clothes – Jay pulling off his T-shirt, Sapphire inching down his boxers. Both caught up in irresistible desire, Sapphire literally didn’t care about anything else, right now all she wanted to do was fuck Jay, feel him inside her, she was consumed with an intense, overwhelming urge for him, that was beyond reason. And he seemed to feel the same by the way he was passionately kissing her, sliding his hand into her briefs and caressing her . . . Sapphire thought she would orgasm right then and he’d barely touched her. ‘God, I want you,’ he murmured, kissing her neck, her breasts, as she put her arms round him
and pulled him on top of her, his cock pressing against her,

‘Fuck me,’ she murmured back, putting her hand on him to guide him into her. This was what she had been waiting for, for so long.